WASHINGTON — Reporters en route to Arizona on Air Force One last week opted to watch the movie "King Kong" in the press cabin. Not so Tony Snow, the new White House press secretary and former Fox News commentator, who told reporters that he spent the flight in the staff cabin watching Gen. Michael V. Hayden's confirmation hearings to be the new C.I.A. director — on CNN.

Mr. Snow's seemingly nonchalant mention of the cable network — "Well, we've been watching it on CNN" — did not go unnoticed by the "King Kong" enthusiasts or, for that matter, by anyone covering President Bush. In essence it was code to try to convince people that he was an honest broker and that Fox News was not the White House channel of choice.

Now that Mr. Snow has finished his first week on the job, it seems a good time to explore the issue.

"There is no official channel at the White House," Mr. Snow said in a telephone interview last week. "I'm looking at my four TV's here — we've got Fox, we have CNN, MSNBC, CNBC." (At 6:30 p.m., the televisions in his office automatically change to the broadcast networks for the evening news.)

"You can't be at the White House and not pay attention to all the major media outlets," Mr. Snow said.

When Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a hunting companion and set off an uproar in February, he gave one television interview, to Brit Hume of Fox. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has given very few television interviews lately, but he gave one last week, to Bill O'Reilly of Fox. (This week he is to talk to Larry King on CNN.)

Televisions in the West Wing are regularly tuned to Fox. Televisions on Mr. Cheney's plane and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's plane are tuned to Fox. Televisions in Mr. Cheney's hotel rooms must be tuned to Fox before his arrival. Until last month, the television in the press cabin of Air Force One was tuned to Fox.

A new era dawned after a reporter, Jim VandeHei of The Washington Post, spoke up on a presidential flight to New Orleans and asked Scott McClellan, the former White House press secretary, why the televisions could not be tuned to something else.

"It's come to my attention that there's been requests — this is a serious question — to turn these TV's on to a station other than Fox, and that those have been denied," Mr. VandeHei said during Mr. McClellan's in-flight briefing, with stenographers recording every word. "My question would be, Is there a White House policy that all government TV's have to be tuned to Fox?"

Mr. McClellan responded, "Never heard of any such thing."

Mr. VandeHei pressed. "And my understanding is that you guys have to watch Fox on Air Force One. Is that true?"

Mr. McClellan said, "First time I've ever heard of it."

After some back and forth, Tim Sloan, a photographer for Agence France-Presse, volunteered that he was the one who had asked for the channel change.

"I was the Fox victim," he said. "And I was told, the quote was, 'No,' when I asked for CNN." Asked who had told him so, Mr. Sloan said it was "the magic people at the other end of the phone," evidently the Air Force One staff up front.

Mr. McClellan, who said he found it all "quite amusing, to tell you the truth," headed toward the front and returned moments later. "We just called up," he said. "They're going to be changing it, at you all's request, to the channel which you requested, which is CNN."

Fox News had little comment last week about perceptions that it is a White House favorite. "We're proud to be the most watched and talked about cable news channel in the country," said Paul Schur, a Fox spokesman in Washington.

Fox's competitors also avoided setting off fireworks. Asked if he perceived any White House favoritism toward Fox, David Bohrman, the Washington bureau chief at CNN, said, "I'm not going to go there."

Then he turned his attention to praising Mr. Snow: "He's a TV guy, and I think he understands what we need. I'm really optimistic."

Tim Russert, the NBC News Washington bureau chief and the host of "Meet the Press," shrugged off any suggestion of White House coziness with Fox. "If that's what they prefer to watch, so be it," Mr. Russert said. "It doesn't detract from what we do. And based on the complaints I get, I know they watch all our programs."

Mr. Snow, who is at the White House by 5:30 a.m. to start plowing through his briefing books, said Fox reporters now feared being shortchanged in his efforts to appear fair.

And so far, one of his testier exchanges in the briefing room was with his old colleague and friend, Carl Cameron of Fox, who challenged Mr. Snow after he predicted how the Senate would vote on a bill — a big no-no for the president's press secretary.

"So you already know that the Senate is going to pass this?" Mr. Cameron asked, archly.

"O.K., you know what, I was being presumptuous here," Mr. Snow said, sheepishly.

Afterward, Mr. Snow said that Mr. Cameron had "sort of played gotcha" and that "it doesn't help me if it looks like I'm favoring anybody."

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A16 of the New York edition with the headline: Fox, What Fox? New Press Secretary Changes Channels. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe